New England-Denver Nail Biter Is Highest-Rated AFC Championship in 29 Years

The Denver Broncos’ AFC Championship Game victory over the New England Patriots was an instant classic — and now it has the ratings to prove it.

Sunday’s afternoon CBS game was the highest-rated AFC Championship contest in 29 years, scoring a 31.8 rating per Nielsen’s overnight household metric, and a 53 share. The last AFC Championship game to top it was 1987’s Denver-Cleveland overtime contest on NBC, which edged yesterday’s matchup by just one tenth of a ratings point.

This may not come as a surprise, but the Patriots-Broncos game was the highest-rated TV program in the metered markets since 2015’s Super Bowl XLIX.

Sunday’s early battle was up 31 percent from last year’s version, when New England crushed Indianapolis — a game that eventually spawned the Deflategate scandal that we still can’t quite avoid.

This two-point victory, which peaked from 6-6:30 p.m. ET, also convincingly bested last night’s primetime NFC Championship blowout in ratings on Fox — by a whopping 19 percent. It’s nice to have a close game — and Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning, of course.

Super Bowl 50 will also air on CBS. The Broncos are set to take on Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Feb. 7, from the neutral site of Santa Clara, Calif. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m ET. Get your popcorn — and ratings records — ready.

Sportscaster Simmons' beef with ESPN went public last year when he called out network bosses over coverage of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The feud reached a boiling point in May and the parties parted ways -- but Simmons, who has since signed with HBO, has continued to criticize his former network, especially since its closure of Grantland in October.

Eighteen months after Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy attacked his ex-girlfriend in a violent assault, police photos of her graphic injuries sent fans into a frenzy, prompting many to demand discipline from the team and the NFL.

Fans feared it was the end for former NBA star Odom when he was found unconscious in a brothel last October. He pulled out of a coma, but his road to recovery has been rocky as the former Laker still struggles to walk.

“I’ve never bought into that ‘baseball is just too complex,'” Cowherd said on his ESPN radio show in July. “A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has not been known, in my lifetime, as having world-class academic abilities."

The former MLB star-turned-broadcast analyst was suspended by ESPN for posting racist tweets comparing Muslims to Nazis. “It’s said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How’d that go?” he wrote.

Most injuries happen on the field, but New York Jets QB Geno Smith got his jaw broken in the locker room by his own teammate following an altercation over money, $600 no less.

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NASCAR Lowers the Confederate Flag

Auto racing is a sport of the South, where many people still consider the Confederate flag to be an appropriate symbol of their culture. When the controversy over the banner hit peak publicity this year, NASCAR made the tough business decision to ban it from official events.

A Penn State student tweeted the sports anchor a link to an article about the school’s fundraising efforts to fight pediatric cancer, which included the school rallying cry “We Are…”

Olbermann responded “…pitiful,” which angry tweeters took as a criticism of the school’s philanthropy efforts. As for why he called the charitable cause “pitiful,” the anchor said it was a simple rushed mistake, while saying social media is used as an alternative to “Wild West saloon brawling.”

Warren Sapp was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in 2015, hence his sad mugshot to the left. That frown was most definitely not turned upside-down when the former NFL great was canned by the NFL network.

Yes, Deflategate was 2015 -- even though it feels like years ago by this point. Brady allegedly instructed the New England Patriots' equipment manager to deflate his footballs, allowing for ease of passing and catching. He was initially suspended for four games, but that later was overruled by a federal judge.

During the big College Football Playoff bowl games on New Year’s Day, sportscaster Rome wrote on Twitter: “Is there anyone not in a marching band who thinks those dorks running around with their instruments are cool?” Apparently, there were lots of people who felt “those dorks” were cool, and that Rome’s comment was not.